Kathy's Choice Awards - 2006 (Part 1)

I have never understood who appointed the Oscar committee or how they choose what movies are the "best" each year. Many, many of their choices make no sense. "The English Patient" was the best picture of the year? Give me a break.

Several years ago, "they" came up with the People's Choice Awards. But they never asked me what I thought. So here is the first installment of the inaugural Kathy's Choice Awards.

Today's awards are for the best overall movies. Granted, 2006 was not a great year for movies, but a few were really good. Taking a page from the Golden Globes, we will have a winner for drama and another for musical comedy.

The drama winner is "The Departed." (See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407887/)
This violent story of corrupt cops, mobsters, and honest cops is one of the best movies in years. I love Martin Scorsese movies, and this is one of the best. Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, and the omnipresent Alec Baldwin give great performances. I did not want this movie to end. It was that good. It should get a boatload of awards.

The musical/comedy winner is "Little Miss Sunshine." ( See http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0449059/)
Everybody loves a story about dysfunctional families, and this is the story of one very dysfunctional family on a road trip. The movie has a lot of famous actors, but the real star is Little Miss Sunshine herself, Abigal Breslin as Olive. She is a bright, honest girl caught in a crazy family and a bizarre beauty pageant. When I saw this at the theater, I hurt myself laughing. The Volkswagen bus reminded me of the many crap cars we had when I was growing up (including a Volkswagen bus). Do yourself a favor and rent this movie if you haven't seen it yet. It probably won't win too many awards because it is offbeat and independent, but Olive deserves a Best Supporting Actress statue.

Next up - the worst movies of 2006.